A guide to GIMP vexelling

Since someone decided to search for vexelling in GIMP, I decided to create a tutorial. A rather basic one at that, but, to prove that the tool doesn’t matter, here I go.

1. Firstly, there’s the tools. Get familiar with them.

You might also take a look at the eyedropper (press O), where you should change the setting to sample merged – unless you like taking the colour of transparencies? No, I didn’t think so.

2. Create a new layer. It’s that blank page icon under layers.

3. Click on that paths button, or to be faster, press b.

4. Now its the typical click and trace type of thing you get with photoshop, or rather, what mimicks this program the most? Paint shop pro 7’s method. Then you click on “Create selection from path”. Yes, it’s the ol’ select and fill method that definitely forces this under the vexel category. So anyway, you can fill it with either the paint bucket or the gradient. I’ll play with the gradient this time around since this -is- a quick and messy tutorial.

What? You thought GIMP was THAT much like photoshop? When it’s called the GNU Image MANIPULATION Program? Naaah. You hoped for too much there. =P GIMP has no vector capacities. It’s all raster from here on.

But you want the smooth curves of a vexel don’t you? Well this at least, the GIMP can copy.

If you look above, I’ve nicely selected all the dark bits. Notice that I’m teaching you how to vexel -in GIMP-, not how to vexel in general. Other people’s tutorials are better for that, I believe. You might try http://vexels.net.

5. So anyway, select some shapes based on their colour. Dark, medium and light shades. It’s your judgment. By the end you should have something resembling a vexel. Bit choppy? It needs fixing then with more outlining but since this is a quick tutorial, here’s the final result without it.

6. Final result? Here.

5 thoughts on “A guide to GIMP vexelling”

Can you find me a little image of folower Lilly (white), and vexell it, you will be given credit of it, the image will be used as logo
for a new image library I have written in C lanauge, which will be 100% free for all.